The Project
by Willow-Yanagi
Summary: A story about Seto Kaiba


Day 1

The annoying buzzing of the alarm clock shook you awake. You opened one eye and squinted at the clock. The clear red digits stated it was 7 o'clock in the morning. You hit the snooze button and turned around, burying your head in your pillow. A few minutes later it buzzed again. You sighed deep and switched it off.

'Alright alright, I'll get up.'

You pulled yourself to your feet and strolled to the bathroom. You raised an eyebrow when you saw yourself in the mirror.

'I look like shit...' you mumbled and splashed some water in your face, then looked up again. 'I still look like shit.'

Your long, darkblond hair was totally messed up and some strains of hair were practically standing upwards. Your face had red stripes all over it from sleeping on the wrinkles of your pillow too long. Your beautiful, crystal blue eyes, which were still trying to adjust to the bright light, looked tired as hell.

You quickly washed yourself and ran back upstairs again. You put on your school uniform and then looked into the mirror to comb your hair and apply your make-up. You didn't really use that much make-up. Usually only a little powder and every once in a while eyepencil and mascara, but never more.

You grabbed your schoolbag and went down to the livingroom. No one was downstairs. You quickly had some breakfast and made a few sandwiches for lunch, then went to school.

The first lesson hadn't started yet, so people were spread all across the school and the courtyard, talking loudly, throwing things around, some were quickly doing some homework before the bell rang. You went straight upstairs to your classroom and sat down. At least it was nice and quiet there. Five seconds after you had sat down, Seto Kaiba walked into the classroom. He gave you an icy look and then sat down at the table next to you. The teacher had given you a place next to him. Both you and him were fed up with it. You were fighting since the very first day you saw each other.

You quickly grabbed a book from your bag, opened it and pretended you were reading.

'Could I borrow your brain, cause you're obviously not using it,' Seto said and grabbed a book as well, then pointed at yours, which you were holding upside down.

'You know, I like your approach, now let's see your departure.' You turned the book around and started reading.

'By the way, you look tired, Willow. Have you been thinking?'

Before you could answer, the bell rang and the teacher came walking in.

'Good morning,' he greeted.

'Good morning Mister O'Neil,' you replied. Seto remained silent and turned the page of his book. Other students entered the classroom and sat down. They were talking loudly as they took out their books.

'Well aren't you a damn ray of sunshine,' you said, then grabbed your books as well.

Seto didn't even bother answering and opened his Math books, then looked at the teacher with a blank stare.

'We're going to start on a project which you will have to perform in pairs of two,' Mister O'Neil started. 'I will tell you in a moment what those pairs will be.'

'Can't we choose the pairs ourselves?' someone asked.

'No you can't.'

The students started to complain amongst themselves.

'Silence please,' Mister O'Neil said with an urging tone in his voice. 'I will decide whom gets to work with whom and that's final.'

The silent complaints in the classroom died and the students turned their attention back to the teacher.

'I will hand out the first assignment of the project in a few seconds, after I've read the pairs to you. Then you will immediately start working.'

He started reading the names in alphabetic order. Since your last name started with a "V" you were last on the list.

'Kaiba Seto, your partner will be Vaughn Willow.'

'WHAT?!' you exclaimed.

'You can't be serious!' Seto agreed.

'It was the most logical combination. Seto is a genius in Math and Willow, you're not. And since you get along so well, I thought this would be a good opportunity to strengthen your friendship.'

'But-' you started, but O'Neil interrupted you.

'Let me make this very clear. Seto, you're obliged to help Willow understand everything about this chapter and the assignment. Willow, you're not allowed to let Seto do all the work, cause when this project is done, I will ask you to explain everything to me.'

'But that's impossible! Her intelligence can't even be measured since the scale won't go that low!' Seto exclaimed.

'I can't listen to him! He's as interesting as a documentary on dirt!' you retorted.

The rest of the students started laughing.

'There they go again,' someone said.

'Silence! If I hear another word out of you two, you both get detention!' Mister O'Neil commanded. 'Now, in this project, you will get one paper of exercises each week for 6 weeks long. You'll have to do these exercises in pairs. We'll work on the first 60 exercises today in the lesson, the rest you'll have to do at home. Now everyone, start working.'

The class immediately grew silent and started working in the assigned pairs.

'Start working on 1 to 10, I'll do 11 to 20.' Seto opened his books and started working.

You opened your book and read exercise 1. It was an exercise that began with a little story, in which you're given some information to solve 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d.

'_I have no idea how I'm supposed to do this...' _You read the exercise for a second time, but still you didn't understand it. Math wasn't really in your area of expertise. You started scribbling down some information that was given already, then looked at 1a; "Calculate the formula of line B which crosses line A and C in figure 1"

'_What...?' _you thought confused. You looked at the information you wrote down, then at figure 1. It was a coordinate plane with three lines drawn in it.

'_Wait, I might be able to do this one!' _you thought optimistically and started writing and calculating until you finally had a formula. _'I think this might even be correct.' _

You looked at 1b; "Solve the equation x2 + y2 = 22 when A=B"

You shook your head and moved on to 1c. When you didn't understand 1c and 1d either, you moved on to the next exercise. This went on until you finally ended back at 1b again. Then the bell rang. You quickly gathered your books and put them back in you bag before Seto saw you didn't do anything. You stormed out of the classroom to your next lesson.

The bell rang and your last lesson of the day had finally come to an end. All the students hurried to their coats and stormed out of the building. A fair few students still had another lesson and sobbed as they saw three quarter of the students leaving.

You walked to your locker and threw in some books you weren't going to need and then grabbed your coat.

'_I still can't believe Mister O'Neil paired me up with Seto,' _you thought as you walked through the corridors.

'Willow.'

You stopped walking. _'There's only one voice that is that annoying.' _

'What?' you sneered back without turning around.

'You're coming with me.' Seto walked passed you.

'In your dreams.' You crossed your arms.

'If I'm going to have to explain Math to you, then we'll need all the time we can spare.'

You sighed. 'Fine.' You put on your coat and walked passed him. 'Let's go already.'

The two of you walked out of the school without saying a word. In front of the building was a black limousine waiting. The driver was already holding open the door.

'Wow, nice ride.' You stepped into the limo.

The inside of the limo looked very sophisticated. It was black with beautiful silver details. Seto stepped in as well and the limo drove off to Kaiba Corp.

'_Could this be any more awkward?' _you thought after ten minutes of silence. _'Should I say something…?' _

Before you plucked up the courage to start a conversation, you arrived at Kaiba Corp. The driver opened the door on your side and you quickly stepped out. The building in front of you was huge. It towered high above the clouds and you suddenly felt really tiny.

Seto stepped out and immediately headed towards the entrance. You quickly hurried after him and followed him through the numerous corridors of Kaiba Corp. He stopped in front of two large doors and opened them. You looked around. It looked like an office. It was a pretty large room, with three big closets at the right, a desk in the middle, a couch and a TV at the left and in the back were windows instead of a wall.

Seto sat down behind the desk.

'Uhm…' you started, to break the awkward silence.

'What?' he sneered back.

'Nothing.' You sat down on a chair in front of his desk, opposite him.

'Did you do those exercises?' he asked and threw his books on the desk.

'Well…' you carefully laid your books on the desk. 'I tried…'

Seto grabbed your exercise book and opened it. He frowned at your scribbles then turned the page to see if there was anything more on the back.

'That's it?' he asked.

'Uhm, well… yes, sort of.' You fumbled around with your fingers and quickly looked down at the ground.

'Then what have you been doing all lesson?' he asked astonished.

'Well, I tried to do the exercises, but I…uhm… well, I didn't really understand them…' you softly replied.

'You mean you really don't understand them?' he repeated you.

'I really don't understand them.'

You could see by his face he wanted to say something insulting, but instead he just sighed deep. 'Fine, let's just get this over with.' He opened his book and turned it around so you could read it, then handed back your exercise book. 'To my great surprise, you actually have 1a correct. Now, b.'

'It's correct?' you asked amazed.

He looked you straight in the eyes with icy, almost angry eyes. It remained silent for a few seconds. 'You know, when I look into your eyes, I can see the back of your head.'

'Back to Math, Einstein,' you replied.

He started hanging up a story about X and Y and the lines A, B and C. You just stared at your book with big, glazy eyes, trying to understand what he was talking about.

'Do you understand?' he asked after ten minutes.

'Wha…?' you replied absent-minded, still staring at the exercise.

'Willow, are you even listening to me?'

'Sure I'm listening, can't you see me yawning?' You showed him an over-the-top yawn. 'And no, I didn't understand a word you just said.'

He sighed and swallowed twice to hide his impatience. 'Fine, I'll explain it in another way.' He started again, this time telling it differently. You still didn't understand a word he was saying. To be honest, you weren't really listening. You had other things on your mind right now than Math.

'Don't let your mind wander, it's far too small to be let out on its own.'

'Ha-ha,' you replied. 'It must give you a great sense of power to know you could bore the world to death.'

'Normally I would've given up already, but seeing as we both will get into trouble if you don't understand this, I'm actually making an effort to let your puny little brain grasp this.'

'Fine, so what did you just say? I have to collate these two formula's to get a third…?'

'Yes.'

'Okay…' you scribbled down the two formulas in your exercise book. 'And then…?'

'Solve it.'

'How?'

'Just put all the X's and Y's on the left side and all the free-standing numbers on the right.'

'Like this?' You worked out the formula so that all the numbers were on the right side and everything else was on the left side.

Seto nodded.

'So it's just the same as you do with a formula which only has X's in it?' You worked out the equation further until you got your answer.

It took Seto about three hours to explain the first 10 exercises to you.

'Is this correct?' You showed him your answer to the last exercise of 10.

'Yes.'

'Wow, awesome.' You leaned back into your chair and sighed deep.

'Now eleven,' Seto continued.

'Seto…' you started and looked at him with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me-eyes. 'It's like 6 o'clock already. I have to go home. No eleven today.'

'You can stay here for dinner. The more we do now, the less I have to see you after school the rest of this week.'

You stood up and gathered your books. 'I hate to leave, but my doctor says boredom is bad for me.'

'Yeah, whatever.'

'Now, get off your lazy ass and show me the way out of this maze.'

He stood up with great reluctance and walked out of the door with big steps. You could hardly keep up with him.

'There's the door.'

Before you could reply anything, he had already turned around and walked away.

'Okay…' You walked out of the building and hurried back home.


End file.
